Nina's Journey
by taylormorrisonwriter
Summary: Nina finds a Ledyba and becomes best friends with her. This takes place during the pokemon wars


The bushes rattled a bit, then stopped. A tiny girl jumped from the leaves with a roar and pranced on top of a leaf, crushing it beneath her feet.

"I have vanquished you, dumb leaf!" She yelled in victory. The child stomped the leaf several more times with joyous laughter. In the corner of her eye, she caught sight of something small and red. A little bug-type Pokemon had emerged from the bushes next to where she stood. From what she remembered her father telling her, she knew it was a Wurmple. The girl set her sights on this tiny bug and chased it into the bushes. the Wurmple scurried as fast as it could in an attempt to get away from the child.

"Come back buggy!" She called. The Wurmple waddled its fat little body and managed to make it into the tall grass right at the edge of her town. A large sign read "Now leaving Pallet," and what she failed to read given her lack of reading skills, "Unsafe. Wild Pokemon in Tall Grass."

The little girl let out a large laugh as she chased the bug deeper into the grass. The Wurmple ran into the opening near the edge of the grass and threw its body into a tiny hole, getting away.

"Oh, man." She said as she stomped her foot and turned to walk back to town. She knew she shouldn't have been so far away from her home without her parents, but the excitement was too hard to resist.

As she turned back around she saw next to a tiny tree was something white and shiny. She ran to it to see what it was and found it was a tiny egg. It had several red and blue markings. She picked it up and examined it, passing it between her hands to see all the pretty colors and how it shined in the light. A soft growl emanated behind her and her chest hardened. She turned, the egg still tightly in her grip, and was faced with several Rattata and Raticates. Their beady little eyes staring up at her and the egg. The little girl didn't know if they wanted to hurt her, but they would jeopardize her dropping the egg, which was her new favorite thing.

"Go away," she said to the small rodents. They growled at her and edged closer. "Go away!" She called again. The small mice didn't back down and began to sink into the ground, in an attack stance. Her heart pounded and her hands grew sweaty.

"HELP!" She called and the Rattata started to swarm her. They bit at her feet and clawed at her legs. She couldn't run, they were everywhere. She screamed and hugged the egg tight against her body. She kicked several of the Rattata in the face to try and get them off her, but it was too hard to keep them all back.

"NINA!" A voice came. The little girl kept kicking and screaming and crying and clinging to the egg when she was lifted from the ground. The rats falling away from her. Her feet hurt a little but she was just happy to get out of here. She managed to open her eyes and saw the person who saved her was her father. She clung to his body with one arm, the other holding the egg. Her father placed her on the ground. Tears streamed down Nina's face as her father examined his daughter's feet and legs.

"Darcy!" He called to his side.

A small woman in a blue sundress exited the house and ran straight for them, distraught at the sight of her daughter.

"Nina! Oh my god, are you ok?" She called. "What happened?"

Nina was still holding the egg, rocking on the ground in pain.

"She went out into the tall grass." Her husband told her. He ran inside to grab the first aid kit.

"Nina?" Her mother said stroking the child's hair. "Nina, are you alright?"

Her daughter nodded through tears and grabbed the egg closer to her body.

"What do you have there Nina?" Her mother asked trying to grab the egg from her arms.

"No," Nina said softly. "I found it, its mine," her mother pulled her arms back slightly in surprise.

"Ok, Nina, you can keep it." She stroked her daughter's hair some more and waited with her for her husband to come back with the bandages and cleaning supplies.

Nina's father returns from inside the house with water, towels, and bandages. They clean Nina and carried her inside. Her feet were swollen and red so her mother told her father to place her on the couch in the living room. As he sets her down, he noticed the little egg Nina held.

"She wouldn't let me touch it," Darcy told him after Nina had fallen asleep.

"Well, if she found it in the woods than it can't be a dangerous Pokemon. Those are all small and harmless." He said picking the egg up from Nana's sleeping hands.

"Those Rattata didn't seem so harmless," her mother said finicking with her earrings.

"They were wild Pokemon, Darcy. We can't blame them." He kissed his wife on the forehead and grabbed a few more blankets from the hall closet. "If the egg was so important to our daughter that she risked her life to keep it then we should be respectful and let her take care of it." He wrapped the small egg in the blankets and placed it in a bowl and put it on the table in front of Nina. Her eyes behind her eyelids flickered back and forth to show she was dreaming. Her father wondered if she dreams of the egg and what just happened in the woods. He kissed Nina on the cheek and stood back up, grabbing his coat.

"Well I need to go pick up Machamp from the daycare," he kissed his wife and hugged her. "She'll be fine. We just need to watch those cuts and keep them clean."

His wife nodded "I love you."

"I love you too."

He left to pick up his Pokemon and Darcy spent the rest of the day watching Nina and cleaning her wounds.

Five years had passed since the day Nina found her egg. A Ledyba hatched a mere two weeks after the small child discovered her. She was a beautiful, large ladybug with a red shell and black antenna. Nina gave her the nickname Scarlet for the bright red coloring of her shell. They were inseparable.

Nina also wasn't a little girl anymore. Her twelfth birthday approached and she wouldn't let her mother forget.

"Can Scarlet and I go into town to buy my birthday gift?" Nina asked her mother one night before dinner.

Her mother gave a small smile and told her to be patient.

"You can go into town to get groceries if you want." She said, "but I already got you your present and you're just gonna have to wait."

Scarlet flew around in circles above Nina's head as she gave an exaggerated sigh.

"Scarlet, I'm not upset." She laughed. Ledyba flew around Nina's head back and forth pacing and laughing.

"Ok, Mom I guess I can get the groceries."

Nina rolled her eyes but they both knew she was kidding.

Her mother ruffled her hair and put a few Poke-dollars into her hands and a small basket. She kissed her goodbye after giving her a grocery list and sending the two of them on their way on Nina's bike.

Darcy felt a lot better sending Nina out to do errands after Scarlet's birth. Scarlet would do anything to protect Nina. Darcy gave a small sigh and walked back inside after Nina rounded the corner of the street and disappeared.

Nina sped down the street with the basket on her handlebars and Scarlet flying ahead of her. Scarlet loved to show off how fast she could fly and often had Nina peddling hard to catch up.

Up ahead, Nina saw the market place and called to Scarlet to slow down. Her Pokemon obeyed and returned to her side. She hopped off her bike as she made it to the market edge and walked with her hands on the handlebars. Scarlet buzzed around looking for her favorite shop on the strip, a flower shop by the name Bell-Awesome Flowers. Scarlet loved the smell of them and Nina often had to stop her from taking a few homes without paying. Nina would always bring them back with a face as red as her Ledyba's shell.

"Hold up Scarlet," Nina said with a stern voice. She knew better than to fly off without her.

Nina caught up to Scarlet and heard a massive amount of yelling coming from up ahead. She and Scarlet ran to the sound to find two men arguing about pricing on a pair of watermelons.

"This is ridiculous!"

"Take it or leave it!"

The two men were in each other's faces and before long Nina saw one of them pull out their Poke-ball to begin a battle. Nina gasped in fright and watched as the two men threw out an Umbreon and the other a Nidoking. The Nidoking towered over the Umbreon but she didn't back down. The Umbreon gave out a brave little cry and charged.

"STOP!" Nina yelled diving between the two men and their Pokemon. The crowd that had gathered whispered in shock. Even the mighty Nidoking behind her stared back at his owner, unsure what to do. Nina took a step toward the Umbreon's owner and put a finger in his face.

"HOW DARE YOU!" She yelled. "Your Pokemon are your friends, they aren't for threatening people!"

The man scoffed at her and returned Umbreon to her poke-ball. "What are you talking about little girl?" He said. "This is a Pokemon battle, this is what Pokemon are for! You almost got yourself killed!"

Nina stomped her foot down hard on the ground and kept her eye contact with the man.

"Pokemon are our friends, they aren't for battling!" She turned to walk away from the man, getting in the last word, when a massive blue light shown from behind her and a loud cry came from the same direction. Loud talking began erupted from the shocked crowd. When Nina turned around she saw the man on the ground behind her and Scarlet putting up her protection screen. Scarlet had protected her from the man trying to hit her while her back had been turned.

"Thank you, Scarlet!" She gave her Pokemon a big squeeze and Ledyba cried out in happiness and fear.

The Nidoking next to Nina returned to its poke-ball and the owner dazed at Nina for a few seconds.

"Sorry about the mess sir," Nina said picking her bike off the ground.

The shop owner gave a huge smile. "Oh no, thank you!" He beamed "He was being such an ass! Please take the watermelons as thanks!"

Nina picked up the two huge watermelons and put them in her basket, there wasn't much room for anything else in there afterward. Scarlet tried picking one up but her small arms couldn't grip it.

"Your Ledyba's defensive power is amazing!" The shop keeper said. "Have you ever thought about taking the gym leader challenge?"

Nina's smile dropped off her face. "Thank you for the watermelons, but I cant accept them." She handed them back to the owner. "As I said, I don't battle."

The owner took the watermelons back with a frown but didn't drop the subject.

"Miss, your Pokemon is so strong, why haven't you at least consider-"

"I said no!"

The crowd dispersed due to the high tension in the air.

"My father was killed in the Pokemon war, I don't battle."

Nina picked up her bike and with Ledyba at her side, she finished her shopping in silence.


End file.
